Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
We are looking forward to providing sun cream in school again for children to use and self administer this summer.
We have not been able to do so for two years to help keep us COVID secure.
The sun cream has been delivered to school this week. The children will be bringing home a letter next week with information about how they will be able to use it and self administer any cream. As always, we recommend that on sunny days you apply sun cream before school to help keep your children as safe as possible during the day.
Parents may have noticed gas engineers in school at the end of the day today (Wednesday 4th) helping us with a suspected gas leak. I am pleased to share that no leak has been found.
As a result of the work today we will have another couple of engineers on site site tomorrow (Thursday 5th). As a result of this we will may not have any heating in school until lunchtime. The weather forecast is for a warm and dry day, however, you may want to ensure that your children have their jumpers with them. Secondly, the kitchen may have to prepare hot food using our electric ovens, which means that the menu choice may be different to what is published.
Thank you for your support.
Mr. Averis
Children in Ockbrook - Mr. Hallam's year 5 class
Unfortunately Mr. Hallam is not able to run his parent evening tonight, Monday 4th April. We apologise for the inconvenience that this causes but look forward to rearranging the evening after the Easter holiday.
We do not expect Mr. Hallam to be able to meet parents tomorrow night, Tuesday 5th April, either, but will confirm this tomorrow.
We are looking forward to supporting this day at St. John's for the first time. We are going to use the day to draw attention to what Down's Syndrome is and how we can play and learn happily at St. John's along side children and adults who have Down's Syndrome.
Children and adults with Down's Syndrome are born with an extra chromosome, 47 instead of 46. To recognise and learn about this extra chromosome we are asking children to wear one extra 'thing' with their school uniform for the day, for example a hat, scarf, false moustache, shorts on top of trousers etc. We are not fundraising, no money needs to be brought to school.
Parents are invited to visit the UK's Down Syndrome page to find out more about Downs' Syndrome www.downs-syndrome.org.uk
We have reminded the children this week that when they arrive at school in the morning and leave in the afternoon that they should use the footpaths around the side of school. Unfortunately some children are walking across the car park and using the car park gates or walking across the grass and then jumping over the wall to get onto Laund Nook.
Thank you for you support in helping our children leave school safely by encouraging them to use the paths and not the 'shortcuts'.
Day for Ukraine - Wednesday 16th March 2022
We are looking forward to supporting ‘A Day For Ukraine’ tomorrow on Wednesday 16th March. We apologise for the short notice, but we only received information about it from the Department for Education today. Children will be encouraged to wear blue and yellow to school on Wednesday. Teachers will use the day to continue helping children understand what is happening in Eastern Europe. The day is being organised by First News Education. They have provided some information and resources to help teachers and parents talk to their children. CLICK HERE. We would also encourage families to look at the BBC Newsround website that has a special ‘Newsround’ page that explains what is happening in a manner to help primary children. CLICK HERE.
Please do not send any money to school on Wednesday 16th March.
Friday 18th March is Comic Relief day. On Friday we will allow children to make donations to Comic Relief and or the Ukraine appeal.
Finally please remember that this event, along with every other fund raising event organised by school is not intended to result in parents giving their child some money. We feel it is important to encourage the children to ‘earn’ any pocket money that you or they wish to donate by doing some jobs around the house or for a relative. All charity donations at St. John's are always voluntary and we hope that in encouraging children to ‘earn’ their donations that we help them improve their understanding of supporting others less fortunate.
We have been asked by Derbyshire catering and school meal service to share a survey link.
Please can parents and families support our hard working catering staff and team by taking a couple of minutes to complete the form. CLICK HERE
Thank you
Mr. Averis
Update at 8.30am - Friday 18th February
At time of writing Belper has an amber weather warning for high wind. Other parts of the country have a red warning.
St. John's has a risk assessment in place to ensure that children and staff stay as safe as possible today at school. Children will not be outside on the playground or field and will spend the day in their classrooms.
We will be monitoring the weather warning throughout the day and will post any information online should the weather warning alter for Belper.
Thank you for your support.
R. Averis
Children have brought home a copy of a letter this week with information about World Book Day activities on Thursday and Friday 3rd and 4th March. This letter is online CLICK HERE.
As well as all the activities on the letter children are invited to add some 'bling' to their scooter. Please feel free to decorate your scooter to match your book day costume. Miss Bennett will be choosing the best scooter to win a prize.
Many thanks to the families that completed our nursery admission survey in December.
Following this we are able to confirm that from September 2022 parents will be able to apply for their children to attend our nursery for up to 30 hours a week. This also means that children will be able to have their lunch with us and stay at school safely from 8.45am to 3.15pm.
More information is in our nursery admission policy - CLICK HERE.
The application form can be found on the last page of the policy - or on our Nursery information page for parents - CLICK HERE.
Information for parents that have already applied for places.
1) Parents of children that have joined our nursery in January 2022 or will be joining us in April 2022 are welcome to complete a new September 2022 application form if they would now like to apply for a 30 hour place.
2) Parents of children that have already applied for a place from September 2022 for 15 hours but now want to reapply for 30 hours are welcome to complete a new September 2022 application form.
3) Parents of children that have applied for 15 hours at any point in the future and want to keep their application for 15 hours do not need to do anything. Your 15 hour application still stands and will be used as your application for 15 hours.
Information for parents that still want to attend for 15 hours
We are still welcoming applications for children that want to attend for 15 hours. Having these children at our nursery and helping them prepare for school happily and safely is still our priority. With this in mind our new admissions policy gives priority to children applying for 15 hours.